I bought the game during the steam sale and am quite impressed thus far. Each of the races are obviously different, but can anyone sum up the differences?
The Alliance ships mainly have the advantage in armor over the other races. (But weapons that have high armor penetration could do them in if the opponent chooses to use the Alliance’s specialty.)
The Empire is more interested in making sure their shields don’t get destroyed, so they have better shields. (But they are extremely vulnerable to fighters due to their ships’ large size, try beating them with the Rebels.)
The Rebels have faster ships than the other races. (No real weaknesses that I can spot, try using weapons with high tracking speed.)
The Federation are basically all-rounders, but they have a slight hull integrity advantage over the other races. (No real weaknesses that I can spot.)
The Tribe ships’ hull integrity is doubled, but their armor and shields are halved. (Weapons that have high damage can seriously make the Tribe ships vulnerable. You shouldn’t worry about armor and shield penetration of your weapons when dealing with the Tribe. Just make sure the Tribe doesn’t close in fast, they’ll rip you apart.)
The Order has a better power output, but is slower. (No real weaknesses that I can spot, try beating them with the Rebels.)
The Swarm ships cost less, but they are destroyed a bit more easily. (No real weaknesses that I can spot.)
The Swarm is my favorite.
Excellent, thank you! I’m going to print this out so I can consult it when designing ships and planning battles.
If you are impressed now, wait for the campaign when it comes out in a few months.
Everyone is dying to play a progressive story driven galaxy context with resource/planet management and ship permanence.
A few months? I can’t wait that long!
Thank you. This thread helped me a lot, too. It’s hard playing with every race trying to figure out what their “niche” is. I mean, I suppose it doesn’t really matter all that much, but I was just so curious…
I am especially intrigued over this hint of a campaign mode… a few months, eh? I look forward to it.
Don’t forget Swarm is also very fast.
… Every Swarm ship has -5% hull/armor/shields, -20% cost, and +15% speed.
Of course, this means that in almost all situations, the Sekhmet Cruiser and Horus Frigate are objectively better than anything else in their class…
As both a newbie and an idiot, this was EXACTLY what I needed. Thanks!
Perhaps a summary of the racial weapons/modules?
not much to say about the stock races, but the expansions’s modules… well…
The Tribe just LOVES to close in on you and rip you apart with their Autocannons and Howitzers (Don’t ask me why they are called that, they are certainly not artillery). They also have a special repair module that surpasses the other repair modules in terms of repair speed and supplies.
The Order’s racial weapons aren’t too big on shield and armor penetration, but once the armor and shields are down, those weapons HURT! (This makes their weapons a great Tribe counter due to the Radiation Effects). They also have limpet mines, which, if they hit an enemy fighter, it acts as a tractor beam and slows them down. A limpet launcher can have 10 mines out at a time.
The Swarm… not much to say. Their Fighter Fusion Guns are more powerful than the stock fighter lasers, the Swarm frigate crew nest gives more crew to the Swarm frigates than the stock modules. The Swarm Disruptor beam has an awesome visual effect, and the weapon’s stats aren’t too shabby 
Swarm also have the most unusual point-defense system in the game. Watch out for “friendly fire,” boys. 
oops. forgot about that one. ahem
The Swarm also uses an anti-missile module that detonates ALL missiles in range, including outgoing or incoming missiles. If you use this, using missiles on the same ship is not recommended.